Tall Houseplant Recommendations

December 8, 2004 11:50 AM

recommendations, please, for tall houseplants that need little watering (we're sometimes away for a week or two), like the warmth (summer is warm, winter has central heating), and don't mind the shade (in summer there are blinds outside to keep the temperature down)? someone just recommended ficus alli to us, yet they are described on that page as "sun loving" - what's right? also, once bought, do we need to repot them into something larger? if so, what soil do we need? anything else plant-clueless people should know? thanks!

if weeks without water is just crazy, we'll need to make other arrangements for watering, but the other conditions can't change, and we're still likely to water only intermittently.

posted by andrew cooke to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

Any Ficus is a good choice. Schefflera is another. Both will handle shade, although they would thrive under more light.

Once you purchase, I wouldn't repot unless it's root bound (if roots are coming out the drainage holes in the pot, or if you can pull gently by the trunk and pull the roots/soil out in one piece.) Any soil mix packaged for houseplants should work fine.

As for how long they can last without water, both handle 7-10 days for me with no trouble, maybe a bit longer, but it's going to depend on a few things (the soil, the humidity in the air, etc.)
posted by mmoncur at 12:45 PM on December 8, 2004 [1 favorite]

Ficus is indeed an excellent choice. I live in suburban NYC and my ficus thrives in all conditions. In the summer I leave it on the deck and it really responds to the sun and fresh air. Also, the rain cleans the household dust off of the leaves. The rest of the year it sits in indirect light just beside a curtained window. It does need to be repotted every 5 years or so if it grows significantly.

I travel a lot, too, and have learned the hard way that some plants do not tolerate even brief dry spells, especially bonzai and orchids.
posted by mds35 at 12:54 PM on December 8, 2004

There are a lot of Ficuses (Fici?) and I don't know that I'd give them all a blanked endorsement for your situation. Certainly Rubber Plant (aka Ficus elastica) would serve well. My father has managed to kill a few Ficus benjamina ( the generic small-leaved Ficus) but I've had good luck with them but with more light than you're describing. I agree with Schefflera (also called Arboricola) but they're fast-growing and can get leggy with too little light. Another good choice is Dracena marginata (the narrow-leaved Dracena).
posted by TimeFactor at 1:07 PM on December 8, 2004

If watering is the main issue, there are lots of ways to water a plant automatically. We keep a lot of plants in the house and my wife take a 2 liter bottle full of water with the cap on, poke a few little holes in the cap, and stick the thing upside-down into the soil a little bit.

works like a charm.
posted by glenwood at 1:16 PM on December 8, 2004

MetaEfficient had a post on some indoor plants that improve air quality. They also linked to an automatic watering system but I like glenwood's system better.
posted by euphorb at 1:40 PM on December 8, 2004

We used to have a Corn Plant (picture here) that did quite well with very low light. We watered about once a week, but we had it in quite a large pot. It did very well with practically no maintenance; we only got rid of it when we moved because there was just no space for it in our smaller apartment.
posted by id girl at 2:01 PM on December 8, 2004

Response by poster: thanks for all the info. pauli just arrived with another recommendation - ficus moclame. which was better for googling than my first ficus and eventually led to this page which lists a pile of ficus under warm and bright. i'm starting to think that you either get water-resistant but bright (think deserts), or thirsty but dark tolerant (swamps!). i guess that's consistent with mmoncur's assessment in that these things handle shade, even though the prefer light?

the watering bottle is a great idea. in fact, it may change things completely, since it's a pretty good argument for discarding the drought resistant and focussing on shady. hmmmm.

anyway, sounds like ficus (of various varieties) is a pretty safe bet. thanks. (i like those corn plant things too - although i think they may be expensive here)

if anyone knows if any of these handle drought, that would be good to know too... cheers!
posted by andrew cooke at 2:24 PM on December 8, 2004

What?! Ficus die real easy. Don't do ficus! DON'T!!!!
posted by ParisParamus at 3:13 PM on December 8, 2004

(im talking about the onces with the pretty, shinny leaves
posted by ParisParamus at 3:18 PM on December 8, 2004

Our yucca, Pedro, puts up with all sorts of abuse and has thrived. If the shade is mostly summer shade, a yucca will be more than happy to just spend time outside. Jade plants, spaths, dracaenas, and rubber plants (ficus elastica, one of the hardiest ficuses; it's not made of rubber, a point that eluded me for an embarrassingly long time) are also safe bets.

(Our thriving yucca was from Ikea, no less! Now that I think about it, they've got ficuses and dracaena and jade plants galore too. It's almost like they've thought about this question before — if you've got an Ikea near you, check out their indoor-gardening section.)
posted by mendel at 5:14 PM on December 8, 2004

I have a ficus that is about 14 years old now. Still kind of small because, well, I tend to forget to water it for weeks or even months at a time. And it gets some sun, but mostly shade. So it drops all or most of its leaves because it's too thirsty, and looks dead... then I water it again and, like magic, it comes back! You can't kill the freaking thing! It's hilarious. So I would say that ficus plants are relatively tolerant of inconsistent watering.
posted by litlnemo at 12:45 AM on December 9, 2004